Irina Shayk and Michele Morrone have sparked fresh online debate after their passionate kissing scenes for Dolce & Gabbana's new fragrance campaign resurfaced on social media. The steamy footage, filmed in Naples, has led some viewers to compare the reaction with the backlash Hande Erçel faced over her intimate scenes with Barış Arduç.
The comparison centres on a simple question: why are similar on-screen moments sometimes judged so differently when women are involved? While the two situations are not identical, both show how quickly female stars can become the focus of public debate over scenes that are part of their professional work.
Irina Shayk and Michele Morrone's Steamy Campaign
Shayk and Morrone star in Dolce & Gabbana's 'Your Devotion Eau de Parfum Intense' campaign, directed by Gordon Von Steiner. The official campaign describes the pair as portraying a deep and magnetic love story set around the streets of Naples.
The campaign includes kissing, close moments and other romantic scenes as part of its story. The brand presents the film as a passionate love story rather than a real-life romance between Shayk and Morrone.
Footage of the pair kissing has circulated widely online, including clips showing them filming in Naples. However, a claim that the kissing scenes for the one-minute advert took hours to film could not be independently confirmed from the available official campaign material. A viral social media post made that claim, but it should therefore be treated as unverified rather than a confirmed production detail.
Why Hande Erçel Faced Backlash
The comparison goes back to Hande Erçel's work with Barış Arduç in the Turkish series 'Aşkı Hatırla'. The pair's intimate scenes became a major topic on social media after the series was released in June 2025, with some viewers strongly criticising the level of intimacy shown on screen.
Erçel later pushed back against the criticism when asked about the scenes. She said, 'I don't think these are the things that should be talked about,' while stressing that the production was being watched around the world and was helping introduce Turkey to a global audience.
The criticism also became tied to the actors' private lives, with online discussion focusing on Arduç's marriage and Erçel's relationship at the time. Those personal claims were widely discussed online, but they should not be confused with confirmed facts about the actors' relationships or the production itself.
The Double-Standards Debate
That history is why the Shayk and Morrone campaign has raised questions about double standards. Both situations involve actors or models performing romantic scenes for an audience, yet the public conversation around Erçel became heavily focused on whether her scenes were acceptable.
There is an important difference between the two cases. Erçel and Arduç were portraying characters in a scripted series, while Shayk and Morrone are fronting a fragrance campaign centred on romance, passion and attraction.
Still, the comparison points to a wider issue in celebrity culture. Women are often judged not only for what they wear or how they look, but also for how they perform romance on screen, while the same scene can be viewed more simply as part of the job through a different lens.
Why the Comparison Is Gaining Attention
The renewed comparison is less about saying Shayk and Morrone did something wrong and more about asking why similar intimate scenes can produce very different reactions. The online debate surrounding Erçel shows how quickly a female performer can become the centre of a much bigger discussion about relationships, morality and public image.
In Shayk and Morrone's case, the romance is openly part of a luxury fragrance campaign. The brand has made the chemistry between the two stars a central part of the story, with the official campaign presenting their relationship as fictional and created for the advert.
The bigger lesson may be that celebrity women are expected to explain or defend intimate work more often than the work itself is discussed. Erçel's response made that frustration clear, and the latest debate shows that questions about who gets judged, and why, are still very much alive.
